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Friday, 28 September 2012

Watch Wenger Pre-Chelsea Press Conference | Santos Chained | Etc

Good morning Goonerland.

It's that day of the week again that allows for a little irresponsibility for those who have worked hard all week. Yes, you can be forgiven if you let your hair down this one day of the week and guzzle a drum but only if you are sure, you can walk a straight line afterwards, must not slur your speech, must not topple over without support, must not fall asleep at the bar and under no circumstances should you disgorge the beans you ate at lunch within sight of men. You've been warned. Big brother will be watching.

Let's get on with it: Yesterday, a Hendon Magistrates' Court, in North-West London banned our adorable, sunny, Brazilian left-back from driving for the next twelve months with a £2,300 fine to boot after the court found him guilty of leading police officers on a merry old spin around London while driving at between 135mph-145mph which is double the 70mph speed limit. He eventually pulled up at the London Colney training center where he told the police officers he had been driving so fast because he was running late for training and his music had been so loud that he didn't hear the sirens while the officers were chasing him.

Morning #Gunners !! Even with the rain and cold , I wish everyone a worderful week , full with positive energies.. xxx
— André Santos!!! (@Andre_Santos27) September 24, 2012

Poor, poor Santos! Who can blame him for driving a Maserati the way it ought to be driven. Twelve months away from the wheels. Surely hope it doesn't break the jolly fellow's spirit. Many a morning when the sun hid behind dark clouds, his eternally cheerful twits have brightened up my day so I'll hate to see that change. Keep your head up, Andre. They can't keep a good man down. It's just twelve months and hopefully you can celebrate the unchaining with a newer model this time next year.

Arsene held his pre-Chelsea press conference yesterday and jokingly admitted that he does not miss Didier Drogba in the Premiership because of the much damage he did against us while he played for Chelsea. It is a sentiment I share and I can actually remember whooping for joy the day I heard he wasn't renewing his contract at the end of last season. Honestly I'm glad he isn't playing against us tomorrow. He was a wrecking ball against us while he was at Chelsea and I'm not ashamed to admit I'm glad he's gone.

Team news-wise, Vermaleen is available for selection after missing the City game last weekend due to flu. Sagna has resumed full training ahead of resuming first team duties but the Chelsea game comes too soon for him and Thomas Rosicky is a couple of weeks away from return from injury. While Jack has resumed full training, he will not be available for selection but could feature in Monday's under 21s' game away at West Brom.

As usual, Arsene had quite a bit to say including his thoughts on Hazard and John Terry's racism saga. See video of press conference above for more.

Arsenal holdings made public its financial results and unsurprisingly declared a pre-tax profit of £36.6m despite the wage bill rising to £146m from £124m last term. The parent holding company's overall turnover was £243m, down from £255m mainly because of reduced property sales, with a rise in revenues to £235.3m from £225.4m.

"Cash and bank balances" stood at £153.6m, slightly down from a year ago, with net debt stable at £98.9m, most of which is tied in with the long-term mortgage following the club's move to the Emirates Stadium.

The club felt a need to defend its profits in the wake of criticism for sacrificing on-field success to enhance the bank balances but I've said it before and I'll say it again, football is a business and businesses are designed to make profit. Our pursuit of on-field success must be pursued in spite of and not at the expense of profitability.

There's a whole lot of ramble in the report that my thick head is unable to make much sense of so if you are interested in all the mumbo jumbo that come with these kind of reports feel free to read it HERE

Like I said earlier, it is Friday and there's a lot to do before the sun sets so I can go get my groove on -you get my drift- and I'm sure you do too. So I'll run off now but I'll be back tomorrow morning with a preview of the Chelsea game tomorrow. And don't forget to hold it down like a man after tonight's night on the town.